One of the greatest moments any parent has with their new born baby is that first moment of eye contact. But don’t worry if it doesn’t happen straight away as the visual system of a new born infant takes time to develop. In the first few weeks of like babies see very little detail. It takes several months for their visual system to develop fully.
Knowing the milestones and what you can do to help your babies visual development will ensure your baby is seeing properly and enjoying life to the full.
Infant vision Development starts during pregnancy
It begins before birth and caring for yourself during pregnancy is extremely important to the development of your babies eyes, brain and vision.
Eating a nutritious well balanced diets and avoiding toxins such as smoking, alchol and drugs .
Vision Development at Birth.
At birth your baby only sees things in black and white and they don’t have the ability to focus on objects. Despite these limitiations studies show that within a few days of birth babies preferred looking at their mothers face to that of a stranger.
One thing you may notice is how large their eyes are, they are actually 65% of their adult size.
The 1st month
In the first month babies are not very sensitive to light so leaving some lights on in the bedroom will not disturb them.
Their colour vision is quickly developing after one week they can see red, orange, yellow and green, it takes longer to see blue colours.
Don’t be too concerned if your babies eyes do not seem to work together as a team, one eye can occasionally drift from alignment, this is normal. But if you see a large and consisitent misalignment do contact your eyecare practitioner.
To help stimulate their vision decorate their room with bright cheerful colours and hang a brightly coloured mobile above their cot.
Months 2 & 3
Many advances take place during this stage babies ability to see fine detail improves and their eyes should begin to work together as a team.
You should start to see your child follow moving objects and start to reach for things. They are also learning how to shift their eyes to look at objects rather then their head.
They are becoming more sensitive to light so you may need to dim the lights for their nap.
Tip: To help stimulate their vision place new brightly coloured objects in their room
Place them on their tummy when they are awake and supervised.
Talk to them as you move around the room
Months 4 t0 6
This is the stage at which your babies eyes develop their own colour. Most babies are born with blue eyes because the darker pigments in the iris haven’t completely developed. Overtime your babies eyes will change from blue to brown, green or grey as the pigment is produced in the iris.
Your child should begin to grasp and throw objects. They begin to co-ordinate their eyes with their body movments.
Tip: To stimulate eye hand co-ordination place a toy in front of them when they are on their tummies to encourage them to reach out for it. Also use plenty of toys that they can take apart and put together.
Important Note:
Play close attention to how well your babies eyes are developing as a team.
Strabismus (Squint) is the term for a misalignment of the eyes and it is important that any misalignment is detected and treated early so that the vision in both eyes develop properly.
Left untreated a squint can lead to a lazy eye (amblyopia)
If you have any concerns about your babies vision arrange an appointment for them in our new baby and toddler eye clinic in our Athenry practice on Thursdays and our Clifden practice on Fridays.
